1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an illuminated parking barrier and, more particularly, the invention relates to an illuminated parking barrier for making such barriers more visible to avoid accidents and injury.
2. Description of Related Art
There are problems associated with parking and passing through parking lots at night, particularly when such lots are not well lit. Most parking lots are divided by a series of painted grid lines to afford individual spaces for cars, trucks and other vehicles. In addition, at the head of each parking space is a elongated raised concrete slab or partial curb that provides a barrier for preventing two facing vehicles from parking too close to one another; or from preventing a vehicle in a parking space generally from pulling into the spot too far and inadvertently hitting a further curb for a sidewalk for pedestrians, a building having parking spaces in from thereof or from otherwise damaging another structure, or from driving off a slope, edge or hill.
While such curb barriers are indeed important in parking lots are areas, they can present hazards particularly at night or when not readily visible. Such curb barriers can be a tripping hazard for pedestrians leading to falling and injury, abrasions or the like. Dangerous falls can result with associated injuries such as sprained ankles, broken arms, or cuts requiring stitches. For other drivers, if the curb barrier is not readily discernible, for example in the dark, the driver can drive his or her car up onto or over a curb barrier causing damage to the car as well. For property owners maintaining such curb barriers, even if required by the parking structure, such injuries to people and vehicles cause pain and suffering, and personal property damage which can lead to lawsuits, and costs associated with settlements and insurance claims.
Possible solutions to such problems include additional parking lot lighting, and phosphorescent paints which catch light from car headlights. While additional lighting is helpful, it is not financially practical in all parking lots and areas, and does not always make such curb barriers sufficiently distinct to avoid all injury and damage. Phosphorescent paint is also helpful for vehicles having headlights, provided the driver catches a view of the paint in the headlights, but not all drivers do see such barriers and such paint which requires illumination by lights at night to phosphoresce does not assist pedestrians walking in the dark.
There have been attempts to provide lighted posts for bollards and parking posts, including incorporating LED lighting or signals in such posts for use in lighting walkways, in front of buildings, pedestrian crossings, loading docks and the like. See for example, Korean Patent Publication No. 2011-085169 A (lighted pedestrian crossing bollard), U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0320918 A1 (lighted bollard for loading dock), U.K. Patent Application GB 2 403 499 A (solar powered lighting bollard for lighting walkways, streets, parks, buildings, parking lots and remote areas) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,833 (vandal proof louvered bollard for lighting waterfront docks and walkways). However, such bollards stand upright and require special installation. Further, they have limited areas of lighting and so in a larger parking area if such bollards are not placed throughout a parking lot, many curb barriers can remain unlit and hard to detect by pedestrians.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a method of providing a curb barrier in a parking lot that is more readily discernible to drivers and pedestrians, which is cost effective for parking lot and property owners to install, preferably without the need to replace all such barriers at high cost to the parking lot or property owner.